A number of different games of chance may use electronic gaming machines as an interface through which players may participate in the game. For example, electronic gaming machines may be used to imitate a traditional mechanical slot machine, a poker game, blackjack game, or other traditional casino games. Electronic gaming machines may also be used to play lottery games, bingo and games similar to bingo, and other games of chance that are not necessarily related to any traditional casino game.
Electronic gaming machines are commonly housed in a large and oftentimes standalone cabinet. The cabinet includes a front side on which is mounted a game video display along with player controls. Player controls may include various types of mechanical controls such as switches, buttons, and levers mounted on a forwardly extending ledge below the game video display. Player controls may also be incorporated into the game video display itself using touch screen technology. In addition to the game video display and basic player controls through which the player makes choices or takes action in the game offered through the gaming machine, the gaming machines may also include other player interface devices such as coin or paper currency acceptors, player card or credit card acceptors, keypads, and other player interface devices. As with traditional mechanical gaming machines, electronic gaming machines also commonly include a number of static graphic displays. In electronic gaming machines, these static graphic displays are mounted above the game video display and/or below the game video display on the front side of the cabinet. These static graphic displays generally provide information regarding the game offered through the gaming machine such as pay tables and other game related information, and include colorful and attractive graphics that are coordinated with the video display shown on the game video display in the course of game play. The static graphic displays may also incorporate non-static elements such as counters or numeric displays for showing bonus or progressive play information. Video displays may also be incorporated into the static graphic displays to show game related information or information unrelated to the game available at the gaming machine. The graphic display located above the game video display is commonly referred to as the top glass, whereas the graphic display located below the game video display is commonly referred to as the belly glass.
The look of a particular game to a player at an electronic gaming machine may be referred to as the game presentation. This game presentation includes the animated graphics displayed on the game video display and associated static graphics shown on the top glass and belly glass. For example, a gaming machine providing a game presentation imitating a mechanical slot machine will include graphics displayed on the game video display to imitate a number of reels. In response to a player control, these representations of reels are set in motion using suitable graphics display techniques and are made to appear to stop at some final stop position that indicates the outcome of the play. The top glass and belly glass will commonly have graphics associated with a theme of the imitated slot-type game, and a payout table showing payouts for various reel stop positions. As another example, a gaming machine providing a game presentation presentation imitating a poker game may include animated graphics displayed on the game video display showing a card deal and allowing the player to see the cards they are dealt and perhaps certain cards dealt to the house or other players depending upon the specific type of poker game being portrayed. The top and belly glass graphics which are part of the poker presentation will be be related to the poker theme and may also include payout tables for the poker game, game rules, and other information.
The game presentation of an electronic gaming machine may depict the actual game offered through the gaming machine or some other game of chance. An example of an electronic gaming machine that depicts the actual game being played is a slot machine type game in which the gaming machine itself, or some associated piece of equipment, executes a program to independently pick the reel stop positions for a given play, and thus determine the outcome of the play. The component that determines the outcome of a play in these types of gaming machines, including the program, logic, or rules that the component follows, will be considered part of the game presentation for purposes of the present invention along with the pay tables that correlate payouts with the various outcomes or results of play in the game, and along with various graphics and audio that may be sensed by the player when playing at a gaming machine. A video lottery terminal is an example of an electronic gaming machine that may depict a game different from the game actually being played to determine a win/loss result. In video lottery terminals, the win/loss result is determined by a predetermined video lottery ticket or data record that is selected from a set of such records in response to a game play request. The game video display of a video lottery terminal may simply show a representation of the predetermined lottery record selected for a given game play request. However, the graphics provided on the game video display may alternatively provide a presentation of a different game such as a presentation including spinning reels imitating a traditional mechanical slot machine. The reel stop position is dictated by the result associated with the predetermined video lottery record selected in response to a game play request at the video lottery terminal.
A given gaming facility that employs electronic gaming machines may include numerous machines to accommodate a large number of players. Each of the gaming machines is generally dedicated to a particular presentation or perhaps a number of related presentations. Although the underlying hardware included in the gaming machine may be fairly generic from one game presentation to the next, the overall game presentation provided by the gaming machine may be switched only by replacing the top glass and belly glass and perhaps by changing the player controls to accommodate the new game presentation. Thus, changing the game presentation provided by an electronic machine to an entirely different presentation is a substantial undertaking and may be accomplished only by taking the gaming machine out of service for a relatively long period of time. A switch of game presentations commonly requires removing the gaming machine machine from the casino floor for the changeover. That is, if a casino desires to change from a gaming machine having one presentation to a gaming machine having another presentation, essentially the entire gaming machine must be replaced or at least taken out of service for a substantial period of time to change the static graphic displays. Because switching game presentations in a gaming machine is so involved, the game presentations offered in a given gaming facility are fairly static. It is noted that even in prior art gaming machines that allow the player to choose from among several different games, portions of the game presentation remains static between the different games available at the gaming machine.
Gaming machines having static graphic displays associated with one or more presentations offered by or through the gaming machine are also seriously limited in how they may be deployed. As mentioned above, prior art gaming machines are commonly located in large gaming facilities having many gaming machines. The large number of gaming machines is required not only to accommodate a large number of players but also to ensure a wide variety of game presentations are available in the hope that each player who desires to play will be able to find the particular game presentation they desire. However, a small gaming facility may simply not have the room to provide a wide variety of game presentations and at the same time ensure that the most popular game presentations are also available to players at the facility. Furthermore, it has not been practical to place gaming machines in locations such as hotel rooms because if the persons who happen to be assigned to the room do not desire to play the game having that particular presentation, the gaming machine will have little chance of being used while those persons are assigned to the room. For this reason, placing prior art gaming machines in places such as hotel rooms has not been cost effective.